Tiny Come-Ons, Plain and Fancy; The Amuse-Bouche Is Welcomed at Home

By MELISSA CLARK

Published: August 30, 2006

AS I helped a friend prepare for a dinner party on the Lower East Side recently, she gave detailed instructions for setting the table: napkin and multitude of forks on the left; knife, water glass and wineglass on the right; espresso spoon horizontally above the dinner plate; espresso cup on top of the dinner plate.

Espresso cup? Was she planning to pour coffee in lieu of an aperitif?

No, the hostess said with a quizzical look. It's for the amuse-bouche.

At stylish cocktail parties and elegant sit-down dinners, espresso cups are more likely these days to be filled with sips of seasonal soup than caffeinated beverages. After-dinner coffee is fading away. Amuse-bouches have arrived.

Once the exclusive domain of multi-starred chefs, the amuse-bouche has trickled down to the dining room of a home near you.

And just as it functions as a way of making restaurant guests feel special, it can do the same at home. With little extra effort you can pur?seasonal vegetables into a quick but intensely flavored soup, arrange lovely tidbits of meat or fish on a pretty little saucer and make guests feel pampered and welcomed in a way that olives, nuts and cheese simply cannot.

That beautiful predinner bite or sip is a delightful surprise as your guests finish their cocktails -- a little gift, if you will, from the chef -- just before you summon them to the table or just as they arrive. As it often is in restaurants, the amuse-bouche can be one of the most memorable moments of the meal.

In restaurants, chefs ask their amuse-bouches to play different roles. Primarily they are vehicles for the chef's artistry, whimsy and one-upmanship.

But at restaurants as well as at home, they can also be a testing ground, a safe place to try out a risky concept, tweak it to perfection and gauge reactions. Before Wylie Dufresne puts a dish of, say, crab roll with pickled ginger tempura and fermented black beans on the tasting menu at WD-50 (and charges for it), he may well offer it as a freebie to see if it flies.

If you find yourself eager to try replicating Mr. Dufresne's anchovy, foie gras and cocoa nib appetizer, but nervous about how your guests will react to it, shrink it and serve it on a teeny saucer.

Often the key is miniaturization of an entree. At Caf?ray, Gray Kunz miniaturizes the likes of poached lobster salad with sweet pepper confit to Lilliputian proportions.

The home cook can do this with many favorite entrees, too. Do your guests all love the garlic shrimp you're sick of making year after year? Try serving each one a single shrimp in a wee cup topped with microherbs and a few granules of salmon caviar, and voil?an amuse-bouche.

Besides the alluring little cup or small plate, oversize white porcelain spoons have encouraged an entire range of amuse-bouches because, as the chef Anita Lo of Annisa put it, ''you can basically put anything in a spoon.''

And so you can, even at home. Seviche, avocado tartare, tiny cubes of watermelon and feta -- are all delightful bites in a spoon.

The same goes for shot glasses. Regardless of when you last downed a tequila shooter, those small-scale glasses make limpid containers for vibrant soups like cantaloupe or tomato. When she is not piling things in spoons at Annisa, Ms. Lo pur? heirloom tomatoes with kimchi and garnishes them with raw clams for the most savory, spicy Clamato ever.

In the long history of cuisine, amuse-bouches (also called amuse-gueules) are relative newcomers, entering into fashion during the salad days of nouvelle cuisine and gaining in prominence and complexity ever since. Before that, said the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Jean Georges (which serves a stunning, ever-changing array of amuse-bouches), fancy French restaurants presented simple canap?and hors d'oeuvres like smoked salmon sandwiches and goug?s with drinks.

Not surprisingly, given how expensive the ingredients can be and how labor-intensive amuse-bouches are to make, some chefs (usually former haute cuisine practitioners who have fled to more casual spots) are moving to less elaborate offerings.

Laurent Tourondel said that when he was a chef at Cello, which was on the Upper East Side, he employed several cooks just to make the many components of the daily amuse-bouche. Now at his informal BLT restaurants, he limits the selection to the less ornate, like a taste of sausage and pickled vegetables or an addictive melted cheese and bacon toast variation on the mouillette. Both are creative and beautiful -- just not as involved as the offerings of the past.

The fact is that as long as it's small, tasty and pleasing to the eye, almost anything can make an amuse-bouche.

Back to my friend's dinner party on the Lower East Side:

Into those neatly arranged espresso cups she decanted a luscious corn and coconut milk soup that she had carefully concocted -- and had eaten for dinner -- a few nights before. A great-looking leftover was stretched just far enough to give each of her 10 guests a happy mouthful.

1. In a pan, bring 2 cups water, the corn, the sugar and 1 teaspoon salt to a simmer. Cook 30 seconds. Remove from heat, and add lemon grass and chili; cover, and let steep 5 minutes. Pur?mixture in a blender until smooth, and pass soup through a fine sieve.
2. To make popcorn salt, heat oil in a small saucepan. Add popcorn, cover and cook over medium-low heat until popped, 3 to 5 minutes. Spread popcorn out on a plate, and let cool. Finely blend popcorn with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a coffee or spice grinder. Pour into a saucer.
3. Just before serving, make foam: in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together butter and cream until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat, add pinch of salt and blend with an immersion blender until foamy (or use a soda siphon if you have one).
4. To serve, dip rims of espresso cups in water, then in popcorn salt. Pour soup into cups, and top with a dollop of butter foam. Serve immediately.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

1. Slice tuna into 1/2-inch cubes, and refrigerate until needed.
2. To make aioli, combine egg yolk, jam, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, lime juice, mustard seed, ginger and garlic in blender or food processor. Process until combined. Mix together canola and 4 tablespoons olive oil in a liquid-measuring cup with a spout. Dribble oil mixture slowly into blender, and process until a thick emulsion forms. Season with salt and pepper. Chill until needed.
3. To make dressing, whisk together 2 remaining tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and the lemon juice. Place tuna in one bowl and microgreens in another; toss both lightly with dressing.
4. To serve, divide greens among large white spoons or saucers. Place 2 tuna cubes on top. Spoon a small dab of aioli on each tuna cube.
Yield: 12 servings.

In a bowl, combine goat cheese, shallots and vinegar. Form into 12 balls. Wrap each with a boquer?Serve.

Yield: 12 amuse-bouches.

Photos: TO TICKLE THE MOUTH -- The rim of an espresso cup is lightly coated with popcorn salt, above; buttered corn soup fills the cup. Left, tuna cubes are dabbed with ginger-apricot aioli. Below, an anchovy wraps itself around a nub of goat cheese. (Photographs by John Lei for The New York Times)(pg. F1); SMALL FANCIES -- Amuse-bouches awaiting the arrival of guests include a kimchi gazpacho, center, with chopped raw clams. (Photo by John Lei for The New York Times)(pg. F4)